How to share a playlist without social media features?

February 17, 2022 6:51 AM

I'd like to make a playlist for a group while maintaining the anonymity of the listeners to each other. Preventing or limiting any displayed comments, likes and/or follows would be ideal for that purpose. What should I use to do this?
posted by monkeys with typewriters to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Spotify will do this--the only number you can see is how many people follow a certain playlist, but not their user ids. (Note that that's just for playlist follows--if someone follows the playlist creator, those follows can be seen.) And of course anyone with a spotify account can access any playlist without following it, just from a link or embed. Free accounts can create playlists, if you also need to remain anonymous.

You can also make "unlisted" YouTube playlists, which are accessible through a link but not through public search. Those show the total number of views for a pl, but not follows as far as I can tell.
posted by radiogreentea at 8:26 AM on February 17, 2022

At the extreme, you could burn the songs to make a mix CD, and mail copies to people.
posted by one for the books at 9:56 AM on February 17, 2022

You could generate a M3U file, which is a playlist pointing to streams or such

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/M3U

The Wiki entry has a list at the end on what apps on which platforms support M3U or can create them. Best compatibility is probably iTunes

https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-create-m3u-files-in-itunes
posted by kschang at 11:10 AM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]

Apple Music does this too.
posted by emelenjr at 2:37 PM on February 17, 2022